The Big Question: Is the Capitalist System Headed For Collapse?
A Q&A with author Roger Martin on the dangers of America’s obsession with economic efficiency.
Faster isn’t always better.
Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images
This is one of a series of interviews by Bloomberg Opinion columnists on how to solve today’s most pressing policy challenges. This conversation has been edited and condensed.
Sarah Green Carmichael: Over the past 40 years, incomes for the top 0.01% have soared and everyone else has really only gotten a modest raise, or none at all. Over that same time, industries have also gotten more concentrated, with a handful of firms now capturing the majority of profits. Your new book is called “When More Is Not Better: Overcoming America’s Obsession with Economic Efficiency.” As someone who majored in economics at Harvard, got an MBA from Harvard Business School, served as a professor of strategy and also was the dean at the Rotman School of Management, what do you see happening here?